Volunteers clean up historic Grayson County cemetery

GRAYSON COUNTY, TX -- A few months ago we told you about Greenwood Cemetery -- a historical cemetery tucked away in Grayson County that is in dire need of some TLC. Thanks to some local volunteers, the revitalization process has begun.

Tucked away in the woods, just east of Bells, is Greenwood Cemetery -- a resting place for about 50 to 60 people, including 12 Confederate Soldiers and one Yankee soldier.

Once members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans found out about the condition of these gravesites, they wanted to help.

"It's a project to us that has to be done," Sons of Confederate Soldiers Curtis Ogle said.

Volunteers spent their Saturday tending to the overgrown cemetery. Each tree chopped down and branch bulldozed away, is bringing it closer to restoration.

"And I happened to stumble across this particular grave right here, and he's our first Confederate soldier that we have found in the cemetery," Ogle said.

Curtis Ogle and a handful of other volunteers are spending their time and money in hopes that they'll be able to not only clean up the cemetery, but locate each veteran's gravesite and order new headstones -- honoring them for their service.

"We don't know who served what out here yet, but we owe it to them to come out here and get this cleaned up, but not only just to them but to all the people buried out here," Ogle said.

The goal is to add these veterans to a national database so future generations can easily find their forgotten ancestors.

"That is our intention and our hope that the people will be interested in coming out and looking at the cemetery and getting more interested in history, and learning about what their ancestors did and why we're free today," Ogle said.

The cemetery clean up is funded solely by donations and volunteers Ogle says they're in need of both.

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